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Thursday, February 25, 2016

HelpTeaching.com Pro Plan Review

I will admit that when I am putting curriculum together, I really try to find as many online resources as I can. It saves me time, and yet still allows me to customize the kid's education as much as possible to their need. As the boys get older, it's getting harder since their work is getting more advanced. Recently we had the opportunity to try out the Pro Plan program from HelpTeaching.com ($24.95).HelpTeaching.com provides educators and parents with extra educational resources in a wide variety of subjects including social studies, language arts, life skills, art, math, study skills, and even science. Grade levels from early learning (PK) through Grade 12 are included. These resources range from printable pre-made worksheets and practice skills through a test creator to create challenging questions from your own made unit studies or those that you have that do not contain quizzes and tests. There is also a section to create your own word searches and various other printable games to make learning more fun.HelpTeaching.com also have a great support section to help parents write their own tests and customize them to provide a challenge to all the different educational levels of their kids. In this area there are also wonderful blogs posts to help parents with the many areas that they may be struggling in during their homeschooling journey. These topics range from sports and other extra curricular activities, legalities of homeschooling, best free educational sites, reading lists, computer science activities, and even how to promote self-learning into adulthood. HelpTeaching.com does offer materials for some printables at no charge. But their Pro Plan opens up all levels and printables for grade PK through grade 12.

The Pro Plan also allows you to save tests and worksheets that you create in your content area for future reference. Also just to let you know, you are not left hanging on answer sheets. I know science isn't my greatest subject, and I to be honest never had to take some of the higher level sciences that are now required by high schools. So as I am looking over Joey's science, I am usually secretly hoping he is not going to ask me any questions because I don't know if I can explain it. On the premade quizzes and tests, an answer key is provided so I don't have to guess or do a bunch of research to make sure he is answering properly.

I was very impressed by the amount of topics that are covered on the HelpTeaching.com website. The Physical Education areas cover topics from nutrition and muscles to the rules of games like badminton, softball, basketball, and even soccer. The Arts covers drawing basics, photography, theater, and architecture. Life Skills including banking, credit cards, budgeting, safety, and employment skills are also included. These are areas that are sometimes pushed aside and forgotten about or not considered as important as math, reading and science. Homeschool parents can easily look over this material and cover it with their children and reinforce what they have learned with easy to print worksheets and lessons.

But it's not just worksheets and printables, HelpTeaching.com provides self-learning in many subject areas with explanations and videos for a child to watch for further help. This provides different learning styles with the right teaching method. They provide these lessons in Language Arts, Math and even Science.

We used the upper middle and high school level material. Mainly in science and language arts. I was able sit down with Joey and match up his science lesson with something he was struggling in his book with. We could read the provided lesson and watch the video explanation. Then practice questions were provided to reinforce the information that we had just went through. Extra video material was provided if extra help was needed, and then the premade online tests/quizzes usually were directly linked into that lesson. It was easy to use and I was able to print results for his academic portfolio.The amount of materials that HelpTeaching.com provides at no charge is amazing. So why purchase the Pro Plan? The Pro Plan provides some extra benefits for that busy homeschool parent who is teaching multiple levels. It gives it access to many more materials at all the various levels of worksheets and lessons. You have access to unlimited materials that you can either make yourself or premade materials. The amount of material provided for only $24.95 a year is pretty amazing. That is also a family price, that is not the cost per student.

Many of the lessons for HelpTeaching.com are linked to Common Core standards if you are interested or required to use those materials. Though I am not a fan of Common Core, I did not see any materials that I would not have used or anything different than our non-Common Core curriculum. So I only mention that in case it is something that you may be required to use.I plan on keeping this as part of our Homeschool budget as I start using more and more of the materials to match along with their 4H project books as we go through those also. The Pro Plan from HelpTeaching.com is a great addition to our homeschool.Several members of the Schoolhouse Review Crew were given the opportunity to try out the Pro Plan from HelpTeaching.com You can see how they used this in their homes by visiting the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.